SECTION III.-Condition and Character of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Regnian territory, &c., previous to the invasion of the Romans.

THE second emigration of the Belge to Britain took place, according to Richard of Cirencester1, about three centuries and a half before the Christian era; and it appears from his notices, that the Belgæ had been settled here about 250 years, when Divitiacus came over with additional forces from Belgium to assist his countrymen. The poor Aborigines of the country were, therefore, at an early period, expelled from their possessions by the more cultivated German tribes, and were compelled to seek for subsistence and protection in the more internal and less exposed parts of the kingdom. The Belgic tribes inhabiting the maritime districts applied themselves to commerce and agriculture; they enjoyed many of the conveniences, and even some of the luxuries of life, and whilst the ancient Briton, driven from his native Downs by the successful invaders, wandered in nakedness, through the inland forests, the warlike Belgian had learnt the use of woollen mantles and party-coloured trousers to screen him from the cold.

The descriptions given of the ancient Britons by the Greek and Roman writers, who flourished at the time of Cæsar's expedition or soon after it, apply only to the Aborigines who had fled from the coast to the interior of the Island. They are spoken of as being taller than the Gauls, hardy and robust. Their yellow hair was permitted to grow long, flowing over their back and shoulders, and their countenance was disfigured by large mustachoes. To render themselves more terrible to their enemies, they tinged their bodies with woade or kelp, which produced a permanent azure hue; and incisions were made and figures of various kinds were imprinted by fire on different parts of their frames. They were destitute of all kinds of cloathing, if we may except the skins of the animals which they had killed in the chase, which were sometimes thrown carelessly over them, or so fastened as not to conceal their painted and tattooed limbs. Delighted as man ever is, in the rudest as well as in the most polished state of Society with ornaments, our barbarous ancestors gratified their vanity by decking their naked bodies with bracelets, and chains, and rings of iron; whilst a narrow shield, a dart tipped with flint, or a javelin with the point hardened by the fire, was borne in the hand, and completed the personal decorations of an ancient Briton. Unaccustomed to luxurious repasts, and indeed unacquanted, in a great

measure with the art of agriculture, they sowed no corn. The principal part of their subsistence was derived from the chase. The few cattle which grazed upon the common pasture supplied them with milk, food, and occasionally with flesh'. Their wealth consisted in these: and they occasionally exchanged them with their neighbours for articles that added to the comforts of life. They bartered with the Belge on the coast the skins of animals taken in the chase, and the hides of their domestic cattle, for whatever pleased their fancy or ministered to their convenience; for money they had none, save brass and iron rings that were valued in proportion to their weight.

The habitations of the Celta were rude as their inmates; being only miserable straw covered huts, built of reeds or wood: they reared them in the forests or on the side of the marshes; and as they were actuated either by the hope of plunder, or the fear of an enemy, or the prospect of obtaining better pasturage for their few cattle, they removed their habitations without regret. Forests served them instead of cities, for they cut down a number of trees to inclose a large space, within which they erected their temporary huts and stalls.

It is difficult to form a correct idea of the general character of the Britons, so varying and contradictory are the statements of the historians. One asserts that simplicity and sincerity marked their behaviour, and that they were absolute strangers to the cunning and dishonesty of the Greeks and Romans of his time. Another affirms that they practised robbery without restraint', and a third that they were a warlike and blood-thirsty people. It is probable that they were barbarians, displaying all the vices and the virtues that distinguish the human being in the lowest state of civilization. To their enemies they were vindictive, ferocious, and cruel; to their friends they were hospitable and kind3; intrepid in braving dangers, yet cowardly in extricating themselves from them; rash and precipitate at the onset of a battle, yet mean and abject at the conclusion. War was their master passion, and with war all the accompanying vices were necessarily associated. They possessed valour without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union. They took up arms with savage fierceness; they laid them down and turned them against each other with wild inconstancy; and while they fought singly they were successively subdued"." Levity and inconstancy seem to have marked their character, whilst they re

Horace, however, seems not to have had a very favourable opinion of British hospitality, when he

sembled their Gallic conquerors in credulity and superstition. If they were distinguished by a respectful submission to their parents, and a warmth of attachment to their friends and their chieftains, their domestic peace was destroyed by a licentious freedom, utterly incompatible with decency and good moral feeling1.

The religion of the ancient Britons was Druidism, and no superstition ever had a stronger hold on the imagination and feelings of its votaries. There was every thing in it which could affect the imagination, rouse the hopes, and work upon the fears of the people. The mystery that hung over it clothed it in terror. The sacred temples, constructed of immense pillars of unhewn stone, arranged either in a circular or oval form, with the cromlech or altar in the centre, were generally buried in the deep recesses of thick groves of oak, screened from the vulgar eye and visited by none but the initiated. Its rites were terrible as they were secret, but as it was generally known, or rather let us hope, only believed, that human victims frequently stained their altars, the very secrecy in which the rites were kept inspired a deeper awe.

As the Druids never committed to writing an account of their tenets, but instructed their noviciates verbally, it is difficult to form a correct notion of either the extent of their knowledge, or the nature of their doctrines; yet so copious was their body of divinity, and so extensive their systems of ethics, jurisprudence, and philosophy, that, as we learn from Cæsar, some of their disciples devoted more than one-fourth of the life of man in attaining a correct knowledge of the Druidical learning. Some of their theological dogmas appear, to say the least, to lay claim to a degree of sublimity, far surpassing that of heathenism in general, and approaching to the dignified doctrines of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. But the few exalted notions of the divinity which they cherished, were rendered to them comparatively worthless, by an intermixture of puerile dogmas in their system, and a superstitious attachment to degrading practices. Infinity and immensity were attributed to the Godhead; the soul was deemed by them immortal, and the doctrine of its transmigration gave to the Priests an influence over the people, extensive as their hopes, and powerful as their fears.

"Uxores habent deni duodenique inter se com- | been many different opinions respecting the foundmunes, et maxime fratres cum fratribus, parentes-ers of Stonehenge. It has been ascribed to the que cum liberis : sed si qui sunt ex his nati, eorum Phoenicians, to the Romans, the Saxons, and the habentur liberi, quo primum virgo quæque deducta Danes, but the elaborate dissertation upon it by est."-Bell. Gall. v. 14. Dr. Stukeley, seems to have completely restored this temple, (to use the words of his own title), to the British Druids."-Coote's History of England, vol. i. p. 13.

"The principal Druidical temples of which we have any remains in this island, are those of onehenge and Abury in Wiltshire, and that of Tre'r Dryw in the Isle of Anglesea. There have

F

Whilst the Druid chiefs claimed to themselves the important functions of the Priest, the Magistrate, the Philosopher, and the Physician, the Bards who may be considered another order, celebrated the praises of their kings and heroes, and chaunted hymns of devotion to their Gods. They were not only the poets of their nation, but also the musicians, the genealogists, the chronologists, and the historians. The harp was their introduction to all classes; with it they soothed the irritated passions, and calmed the troubles of the despairing. Its notes drowned the shriek of the expiring victim on the funeral pile', roused the lethargic to activity, enspirited even the coward, and prompted the valiant to deeds of glory; and if we may believe the testimony of an ancient historian, their art was not less efficacious than was that of Orpheus, since by the sweetness of their lyre they checked enfuriated armies on the point of conflect, and charmed away their rage.

'The unfortunate Chatterton has painted in the most terrific colours, this inhuman ceremony of the Druids :

-

Ye dreary altars by whose side

The Druid priest in crimson dy'd,

The solemn dirges sung,

And drove the golden knife
Into the palpitating seat of life,

While rent with horrid shouts the distant valleys rung.

The bleeding body bends,

The gloomy purple stream ascends,
While the troubled spirit near,
Hovers in the steamy air:

Again the sacred dirge they sing,
Again the distant hills and coppice valley ring.

2 Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. sect. 31.

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE INVASION OF BRITAIN BY THE ROMANS, TO THEIR DEPARTURre FROM THE ISLAND, ABOUT THE YEAR 420.

Caesar's two expeditions-The arrival of Plautus-Vespasian enters and subdues Sussex, with several of the more western districts-The Regnian Kingdom established, under the auspices of Rome-Agricola, his conquests, his policy, and his character-Introduction of luxury amongst the Britons-Departure of the Romans-Estimate of the mutual advantages gained by the Romans and the Britons-State of the Regnian province-Regnum-Lewes-Introduction of Christianity.

ocean.

SUCH was the state of the Regnian district, when Julius Cæsar having completed the conquest of Gaul, determined to carry his victorious arms across the Whatever was the real motive of Cæsar's hostile visit,-whether, as is intimated by Suetonius', it was the hope and expectation of forming a valuable collection of British pearls, which were at that time held in much estimation,— or whether, as is more probable, his insatiable ambition prompted him to seek new honours, in a land which had never before been approached by the Roman eagles,-certain it is, that the pretext assigned by him for this invasion, was, that the Britons had afforded a retreat to the fugitive Bellovaci, and had given assistance to the Gauls in the war which he had just concluded. Concealing his cupidity and ambition under the cloak of resenting the injuries which the Romans had suffered, Cæsar embarked his troops, and quickly appeared off

Suet. in Vit. Jul. Cæs. cap. 47.

"Moreover as Geat was one of the first stones of this isle, whereof any forrein account was made, so our pearles did match with it in renowne, in so much that the only desire of them caused Cæsar to aduenture hyther, after hee had seene the quantities, and hard of our plenty of them whylest he abode in France. Certes, they are to be found in these our dayes, and thereto of diuers coulours, in no lesse numbers than euer they were in olde tyme. Yet are they not now so much desired bycause of theyr smallnesse, and also for other causes, but especially sith churchworke, as copes, vestements, albes, tunicles, altar clothes, canapies,

and such trash are woorthily abolished, upon which our countrymen heretofore bestowed no small quantities."-Harrison's Desc. of Brit., prefixed to Hollinshed, p. 116.

Pliny remarks," În Britannia parvos atque decolores nasci certum est, quoniam divus Julius thoracem, quem Veneri Genetrici in templo ejus dicavit, ex Britannicis margaritis factum voluerit intelligi."-Nat. Hist. 1. 9. cap, 35.

The pearl fishery of Britain evidently was not an object of sufficient value to induce Cæsar to fit out an expedition to obtain it. Ambition doubtless was the primary stimulant, which might perhaps be seconded by avarice.